There are some complaints doing the rounds regarding Learner’s Licence test questions related to items that are not in the South African Rules of the Road but that seem to have crept into some test papers — according to people who have written the test.

In co-operation with other professional bodies and individuals involved with learner driver teaching and training, we would like to get to the bottom of these complaints. Any help from any party, including test candidates, would be much appreciated.

To kick this off, here is one such complaint. If you have had such a question, please comment as suggested lower down.

Motorcycle specifications questions

A test candidate says he was asked about the handlebars:

height above seat, and

width from grip to grip

and also about the limitations for a 900 cc and 125 cc motorcycle in three separate questions. (He did not specify exactly what the questions were.)

Department of Transport response

“…there is no such question in the learner’s licence test.” [about handlebars]

So, what are the real facts? Who is not speaking accurately? We’ve also heard that this complaint has been voiced to other professional people in the driving licence industry. Is this candidate getting his facts wrong? Has one of the testing stations deviated from the official test?

This candidate did the test at the Akasia testing centre. It was the electronic version of the exam (touch-screen computers).

Other complaints have been about trucks

The same candidate queried a question regarding a cargo extending beyond the rear axle:

Various study materials, he says, state 900 mm; the exam asked 850, 950, and 1050 mm.

Truck and trailer:

Where the reflector tape on the trailer is meant to be – i.e. the sides and rear of the trailer.

Were other reflectors must be.

Comments welcome!

Please leave a comment with as much information as possible about the motorcycle questions mentioned above, and/or any other unexpected questions, including the truck questions mentioned here. e.g.

when you took the test

which testing station

whether touch-screen computer testing, or pencil and paper

any other information you remember, such as the question number

Comments

Note about comments that were previously on this page: This site has just been rebuilt from scratch to get rid of a ‘pharmahack’ that was causing spam text to appear in the text snippets of search results at the search engines. In the process,the comments had to be re-posted. To avoid re-registering as the person who originally posted their comments below (using their e-mail address), I have simply pasted them into my own post which should bring it all up to date anyway.

Helynn Meyer
2012-02-29 10:00:45
I had the same questions about the legal height of the handlebars and this is no where to be found in any book I studied! Also the information was wrong in the testing about the distances foreign objects can protrude from the back of a motorcycle. It is 900mm…there was no option for that! It was touch screen computer test at the Akasia Testing grounds in Pretoria I wrote yesterday, the 28th Feb 2012. Is this even in any of the books?

Gavin
2012-02-29 12:25:54
Thank you Helynn. You are now the third person who has told us this, and yet the Department of Transport says there is no such question in the test! Clearly something is not ‘kosher’ here. I have forwarded your comments to the Southern African Institute of Driving Instructors who will hopefully take this up again with the Department of Transport. It is quite ridiculous. As for the measurements of load projections, those given in the good Learner’s Licence teaching manuals are indeed correct. Thank you for your post here.

Willie
2012-03-07 10:28:39
I wrote my learners yesterday(6 March 2012) at Akasia, we were warned by Bonus driving school that there is funny questions in the test. I had the questions about handle bars and a question regarding exuast pipes on vehilcles. when i said that these questions are not in the k53 manual i was told that these are part of the south african law regarding motor vehicle specifications and that i am suppose to know this. Out of the 25 people that wrote the test about 5 passed.

Gavin
2012-03-07 12:16:33
Thank you Willie. The matter has been brought to the attention of the SAIDI and JP-SA again today, 7 March.

Tobie
2012-03-26 08:34:55
hi I wrote there twice already, studied the K53 manual. went to Akasia testing station on the 12th of march i wrote and failed i booked again the same day i got a date for the 22nd of march, studied the K53 manual and also the used a testing quiz from trafficquiz which had 5 different quizes i did those about 5 times each until i mastered them went to write again and failed again. I cannot recall the questions unfortunately but i truly they have deviated from the oficial test. now i’m thinking of doing it somewhere else.

Gavin
2012-03-26 09:26:06
Tobie, thank you for your comments. I have now added some info (see link below in this comment) about the motorcycle test questions as asked at the Akasia Testing Centre. The matter has been brought to the attention of the Department of Transport, the Sunday Times, Carté Blanche and others. To date nothing appears to have been done about this disgrace. If you decide to go back to Akasia, here is the link to the information about motorcycle handlebars specifications … which are NOT part of the Rules of the Road, on which the test is meant to be based. On that page, scroll down to the bottom for this particular item. Motorcycle handlebars information